How bad has this year’s tornado season been, relative to other years?

A: Extraordinarily bad, even by historical standards.

The Facts (and Fiction) of Tornadoes - NYTimes.com

When George W. Bush signed the bankruptcy bill into law earlier this year, he made clear his vision that whatever troubles face American families, it is their own fault, and his plan is to punish them. America’s middle class deserves better.

Literally every single argument made in favor of that abominable bill was a lie. This article provides a long refutation of the GOP's position that the middle class is plagued by lazy overconsumption and provides some reasonable policy priorities that would actually be useful.

The overconsumption myth.

It was the forced online gaming that was the most surreal part of his imprisonment. The hard slog may have been virtual, but the punishment for falling behind was real.

"If I couldn't complete my work quota, they would punish me physically. They would make me stand with my hands raised in the air and after I returned to my dormitory they would beat me with plastic pipes. We kept playing until we could barely see things," he said.

China used prisoners in lucrative internet gaming work | World news | guardian.co.uk

April's producer price index for finished goods, which excludes services and falling home prices, rose 6.8%. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that intermediate goods prices for April were rising at a 9.4% annual clip.

Fuck.

This would only be useful if it was having a positive impact on housing prices.

It isn't.

Which means the value of your assets is collapsing and the value of your cash is collapsing.

Ronald McKinnon: The Return of Stagflation - WSJ.com

An executive at the company that provides red-light cameras in Spokane has been suspended after a newspaper in Western Washington discovered he misrepresented himself as a local resident on its website and made comments to promote business in the area, a company spokesman said Friday.

Red-light camera firm puts exec on leave for Web postings - Spokesman.com - May 20, 2011

At least 481 people have died in tornadoes so far this year, the earliest such a high toll has ever been reached...

“We are now on pace for a record year for tornado fatalities,” Schneider said on conference call with reporters today. “I think we have to be aware that we are just now entering the peak of the season.”

This year’s stormy season may be caused by a waning La Nina, a cooling in the Pacific Ocean, that is focusing the track for severe storms at just the right distance from warm moist air coming north from the Gulf of Mexico.

“Some part of it is global warming-climate change and some part is natural variability.”

More deadly tornadoes on the way this year - Bloomberg

Pariser is concerned that invisible "smart" customization of your Internet experience can make you parochial, exploiting your cognitive blind-spots to make you overestimate the importance or prevalence of certain ideas, products and philosophies and underestimate others.

This is an important discussion.

The Filter Bubble: how personalization changes society - Boing Boing

Christian doomsday prophet Harold Camping looks likely to be less than rapturous after his prediction that the world would end on Saturday failed to materialise.

The 89-year-old Californian preacher had prophesied that the Rapture would begin at 6pm in each of the world's time zones, with those "saved" by Jesus ascending to heaven and the non-believers being wiped out by an earthquake rolling from city to city across the planet.

This is what Jane Lane was talking about! I guess I have 10 hours before the world ends in my time zone - Already popping a beer...

Apocalypse not now: The Rapture fails to materialise | World news | guardian.co.uk

Mark Klein, the former A.T. & T. employee who exposed the telecom-company wiretaps, is also dismayed by the Drake case. “I think it’s outrageous,” he says. “The Bush people have been let off. The telecom companies got immunity. The only people Obama has prosecuted are the whistle-blowers.”

Of interest...

Charges Against the N.S.A.’s Thomas Drake : The New Yorker

A WikiLeaks supporter and friend of accused leaker Bradley Manning filed a federal lawsuit Friday accusing U.S. border officials of violating his rights by seizing his laptop without a warrant as he re-entered the country from a vacation in Mexico last year.

Bradley Manning Friend Sues DHS Over Seized Laptop | Threat Level | Wired.com